What is the Google Cloud console?

The Google Cloud console lets you build, deploy, and scale applications, websites, and services on the same infrastructure as Google. You can access the Google Cloud console with any Google account.

If your company has yet to access the Google Cloud console, you can get started through the Google Cloud Free Program. 

If your company has accessed the Google Cloud console before, you can log in.

What is a Google Cloud billing account?

A Cloud Billing account is set up in the Google Cloud console and defines who pays for a given set of Google Cloud resources and Google Maps Platform APIs. Any Google Cloud credits given through the program will be connected to a billing account.

1. View my existing billing accounts

You can view a list of all cloud billing accounts you have permissions to access by following these instructions.

2. Create a Cloud Billing account

If your company does not have a Cloud Billing account, you can create a new account.

1. Sign in to the Manage billing accounts page in the Google Cloud console.
2. Click Create account.

• Organization: If you see an organization drop-down, then you must select an organization before you can continue.
• Country: If you are prompted to select a country, select the country that corresponds with your billing mailing address.
• The country you select affects the payment options available in the next step.
• The currency for your Cloud Billing account is automatically assigned based on the country you select.
• Your country determines what payment methods you can use to pay for your incurred usage costs.
• Choose your country (and currency) carefully, as you can't change these selections later. If you need to edit the country on an existing Cloud Billing account, you'll need to create a new billing account.
• Prohibited territories: Google Cloud is available in most countries and regions. However, Google restricts access to some of its services in certain countries or regions, such as China, Crimea, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, and Syria. If a country is not in the list, it might be due to restricted access to Google Cloud services.
• Enter the name of the Cloud Billing account.
• Depending on your configuration, you will also need to select one of the following:
• Click Continue.

3. Choose the Google payments profile that will be associated with this Cloud Billing account. A payments profile is shared and used across all Google products (such as Google Workspace, Google Cloud, Google Fi, and more). You can choose an existing Google payments profile, or create a new payments profile. If you choose to create, follow the instructions on the screen to set up your Google payments profile.

Important: about the account type

• If you are creating a new Google payments profile, when setting your account type, be aware that this setting is permanent and may be used for tax (such as value-added tax (VAT)) and identity verification. If this is for a business, organization, partnership, or educational institution, or if you want more than one person to have access to the profile, select Business. Otherwise, select Individual. Individual account types allow for only one user to be associated with the Google payments profile.
• Depending on your country's tax requirements, you might need to enter additional tax information.
• If you are choosing an existing Google payments profile to be associated with this Cloud Billing account, select a Business profile for Cloud account.

4. When you are done setting all the options and details, click Submit and enable billing. 

What is a Google Cloud organization?

An organization is the root node of your Google Cloud resources. All projects and billing accounts created under your domain will be children of this organization resource.

1. Create a Cloud Identity account

In order to create an organization resource, you need a Cloud Identity account:

• Cloud Identity is an identity management platform. Through the Cloud Identity console, you can create and manage users under your domain. These are the user accounts that you can use to sign in to the Google Cloud console. 
• You can get Cloud Identity by signing up, or by becoming a Google Workspace customer.

2. Access your Google Cloud organization

Once you have created your Google Workspace or Cloud Identity account and associated it with a domain, your Google Cloud organization resource will be automatically created for you. The resource will be provisioned at different times depending on your account status:

• If you are new to Google Cloud and have not created a project yet, the organization resource will be created for you when you sign in to the Google Cloud console and accept the terms and conditions.
• If you are an existing Google Cloud user, the organization resource will be created for you when you create a new project or billing account. Any projects you created previously will be listed under "No organization," and this is normal. The organization resource will appear, and the new project you created will be linked to it automatically.
• You will need to move any projects you created under "No organization" into your new organization resource. For instructions on how to move your projects, see Migrating projects between organization resources.

3. Assign an Organization Admin

You'll also need an Organization Administrator of the organization resource. The Org Admin can manage IAM policies and view organization policies for organizations, folders, and projects.

If you're the Super admin of your Cloud Identity account, you can add yourself and others as the Organization Administrator of the corresponding organization resource.

For instructions on adding Organization Administrators, see Delegate Google Cloud administrators.

What is a project?

Google Cloud projects form the basis for creating, enabling, and using all Google Cloud services including managing APIs, enabling billing, adding and removing collaborators, and managing permissions for Google Cloud resources.

How can I migrate an existing project into my Google Cloud organization?

If you have existing projects outside of your organization, you can migrate your projects into your new organization resource. For instructions on how to move your projects, see Migrating projects between organization resources. 

1. Create a project

1. Go to the Manage resources page in the Google Cloud console.
2. On the Select organization drop-down list at the top of the page, select your organization resource. If you have just created your Cloud Identity account, your organization will appear in step 5 listed below.
3. Click Create Project.
4. In the New Project window that appears, enter a project name and select a billing account as applicable. A project name can contain only letters, numbers, single quotes, hyphens, spaces, or exclamation points, and must be between 4 and 30 characters.
5. Enter the parent organization or folder resource in the Location box. That resource will be the hierarchical parent of the new project. If No organization is an option, you can select it to create your new project as the top level of its own resource hierarchy.
6. When you're finished entering new project details, click Create.

Once you have created your first project, your organization resource will be provisioned automatically.

2. View your Google Cloud resources

1. Go to the Manage resources page in the Google Cloud console.
2. On the dropdown at the top of the page, select the organization resource for which you want to manage resources.
3. All projects and folders in the organization resource are listed on the page.

What is a Cloud Billing account?

A Cloud Billing account is set up in Google Cloud and defines who pays for a given set of Google Cloud resources and Google Maps Platform APIs. A Cloud Billing account is owned by an organization and pays for projects. Any Google Cloud credits will be connected to a billing account.

1. Review billing account permissions

Each Cloud Billing account needs at least one billing account administrator. By default, the person who creates the Cloud Billing account is an admin for that account. We recommend reviewing who is the billing admin on your billing accounts, and adding more than one admin for redundancy purposes. For instructions on adding a billing account admin, see Manage access to Cloud Billing accounts.

2. View billing accounts under the organization resource

To view billing accounts under an organization resource, follow the steps below:

1. Go to the Google Cloud console Billing page.
2. In the drop-down at the top of the page, select the organization resource for which you want to view billing accounts.

All billing accounts for the organization resource are listed on the page.

3. Confirm billing account configurations 

Important: Follow these best practices for a smooth transition into the Google for Startups program.

• If you have a free trial account, upgrade your billing account. When a free trial billing account expires without an upgrade, all existing Google Cloud resources are stopped. To prevent this, upgrade your billing account before all free trial credits are consumed, or before the end of 90 days. When you upgrade your account, you will still have access to any unexpired free trial credits.
• If you have an individual billing account but want a business account (or vice versa), create a new billing account. If this is for a business, organization, partnership, or educational institution, or if you want more than one person to have access to the profile, select Business. Otherwise, select Individual. Individual account types allow for only one user to be associated with the Google payments profile.

4. Migrate existing billing accounts

If your active billing account is outside of your organization, migrate it to your organization resource. Migrating a Cloud Billing account into an organization resource doesn't affect project services. You must have these roles to migrate billing accounts:

• You must be a billing account administrator for the Cloud Billing account that you want to migrate.
• You must be a billing account creator on the organization resource to which you want to migrate your Cloud Billing account.
• If you want to migrate a Cloud Billing account from an existing organization resource, you must be a billing account administrator for the organization resource that you are migrating the Cloud Billing account from.

To learn about granting these roles, see the Overview of Cloud Billing access control.

To migrate your existing billing accounts into an organization resource, follow the steps below:

1. Go to the Google Cloud console Billing page.
2. From the Select an organization menu, select an organization resource to see the Cloud Billing accounts associated with it, or select No organization to see billing accounts that aren't associated with an organization resource.
3. Under Billing account name, click the name of the Cloud Billing account that you want to migrate. The billing account overview page opens.
4. In the Billing navigation menu, click Account management.
5. At the top of the Account management page, click Change Organization, then select the organization resource to which you want to migrate the Cloud Billing account.

5. Attach billing account to projects

In order for your projects to be paid for by a billing account, it must be attached. Review your projects to see if the correct billing account is attached. In order to modify billing for a project, see Enable, disable, or change billing for a project.